Best teachers in Ogun get house, cash prizes

Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has appreciated some outstanding teachers in the state with cash prizes and a house.

The governor offered Mr Odegbola Ayodele, a Junior Secondary School teacher from Abeokuta Grammar School, who emerged the Overall Best Teacher in the state, a two-bedroom bungalow in the state-owned Princes Court.

Mr Adewale Abayomi of Odua Comprehensive High School, Imoru, who was declared the best teacher in the Senior Secondary School category was given the sum of N2.5m and Mrs Mary Adeyemi from St. Paul’s School II, Sagamu, who was the Best Primary School Teacher went home with a cash gift of N2m.

The governor said the state government had instituted a yearly Best Teachers Awards in this category to appreciate outstanding teachers in the state and those who had distinguished themselves in the course of carrying out their duties.

Abiodun disclosed this while addressing executive members of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Academic Staff Union Secondary Schools (ASUSS) and All Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

He said, “We will continue to celebrate innovation. We will encourage consistency. Our administration will continue to make the welfare of our teachers our priority. Our teachers’ reward will not be in heaven, but here on earth,” he stated.

He used the occasion to call on parents to be more involved in caring for their children instead of shifting the responsibility to teachers as the development process of a child would not be complete without the involvement of their parents.

He said, “It is becoming increasingly clear that our children now spend the larger part of their days with teachers. It is alarming to see that in the pursuit of economic fulfilment, many parents have now left their parental roles to teachers.

“While I call for a rethink by such parents, but in the meantime, I will call on our teachers to help the situation by inculcating in the children, positive attitudes, ideals and virtues. Help us to protect the rights of our children.”

The governor also said that the process for the recruitment of 1,655 graduate teachers to fill some of the vacancies existing in public secondary schools in the state was at an advanced stage.

He said career elongation of primary school teachers to Grade Level 15 had been approved, adding that principals-general and headmasters-general from the four geo-political zones of the state had been appointed and sworn into office.

The Chairman of the state NUT, Titilope Adebajo, who described teachers as risk takers and mind moulders, called for the introduction of Education Trust Fund to enable government to address many challenges facing the education sector.

The state Chairman, ASUSS, Akeem Lasisi, called for the review of the free education policy to enable participation of parents and corporate entities in fund the sector.